P65M more asked for CICC finishing touches

Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia has endorsed to the Provincial Board a P82-million supplemental budget, which includes P65 million as additional funding needed for the completion of the Cebu International Convention Center (CICC).

Certifying it as urgent, the governor however is auured the support of the Provincial Board as the presiding officer, Vice Governor Gregorio Sanchez has announced that it is "good as approved."

The board will not however be able to call a special session today to tackle the matter since some of the members are in China with the governor, but Sanchez assured that the supplemental budget will be part of the agenda in Monday's regular session.

This will be the second time that the governor will be asking the board to approve a supplemental budget for the construction of the structure.

In August, an additional budget of P200 million was requested due to the increase in the prices of structural steel. The province had originally allocated only P250 million for the structure, which was the budget for the shelved plan to build a Megadome. The original budget of P250 million was set aside in 2003, which was later realigned for the CICC when President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo decided to hold the 12th Association of Southeast Nations (Asean) summit here in Cebu.

The P65 million additional budget will cover extra work at CICC.

A special session would have been called by the PB to tackle the said appropriation ordinance, but four of the 15 board members are now in Hainan Province, China.

PB members Agnes Magpale, Juan Bolo, Carmiano Kintanar and Victor Maambong are with the governor to attend Hainan Province's cultural festival and to further strengthen the twinning of the two provinces. They are expected to be back on Saturday.

Aside from the money for the CICC, there will be P9 million to be set aside for acquisition of a property in Minglanilla town as equity of the province in the housing program of Gawad Kalinga Foundation. Another P8 million still allocated for the purchase of another property in Carmen town identified as sanitary landfill of the province for the northern cluster.

Regarding the P35 million budget from Malacañang, Sanchez said, it is an executive prerogative to accept said financial assistance or not.

"As far as I know, CICC is fully funded by the provincial government," he said.

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita on Wednesday said Malacañang has already approved the release of P35 million for the completion of the venue.

In a previous interview, Capitol consultant on information organization and management Atty. Pablo John Garcia already said capitol would not ask nor even accept a single centavo from the national government to complete CICC.

The governor's younger brother was peeved over a negative commentary of Philippine Star Publisher Maximo Soliven in his column by saying that the governor might have whispered into the ears of the president the request for an additional funding to finish CICC.

RALLY BY MILITANTS

What was supposed to be a rally in commemoration of the killing of workers of Hacienda Luisita, 100 militants yesterday trooped to CICC to show their dismay over the lavish spending of the provincial government for the summit.

Bayan Muna Provincial Secretary General Arman Perez said that the money spent for the summit should have been used for the needs of the Cebuanos.

He said that the CICC will be useless after the ASEAN Summit.

"Mao ba kini ang mga hinanaling panginahanglan sa mga tawo?Unsay mahitabo sa CICC inig human sa Summit? Unsay capacity sa government aron pagmaintain ana nga edipisyo, masayang lang ang kwarta sa gobyerno niiini," Perez said.

He added that during the gathering of leaders, they will also be holding a huge rally to express their sentiments. He said that they have not yet planned for the venue of the rally though but will gather other groups who will participate with them in their cause.

But to fend off criticisms against capitol's spending for the CICC, Malacañang in a press release said the upcoming 12th Asean summit, where majority of the meetings are expected to be held at CICC, is going to generate P 1.2-billion in terms of economic benefits for Cebu.

In a press release from the Philippine Information Agency (PIA7), Foreign Affairs Assistant Secretary Louie Cruz, Philippine director-general for Asean affairs, on Thursday said the amount is only a "conservative calculation" considering that there will be thousands of foreign delegates and visitors who will converge in Cebu even after the summit.

He said that while the summit will officially start on December 11, foreign guests will start arriving in Cebu days before the summit and that many will stay behind for a short vacation in some scenic spots in the island province.

All hotels in Cebu, especially the five-star hotels, have been fully booked already.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who is the chair of the 12th Asean summit, will preside over the Asean leaders's summit composed of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar (Burma), Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, plus eight non-Asean member countries such as China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and India.

He emphasized the government "is very well prepared to handle any kind of situation" that may arise.

Cruz reiterated that one of the most significant issues the Asean leaders will tackle is the signing of the proposed Asean Charter that will give Asean a "legal personality" and commit the 10-member regional grouping to rules agreed upon rather than on consensus.

The draft of the charter on its final stage, is now being tackled and deliberated upon by the Eminent Persons Group (EPG) composed of statesmen from Asean member countries.

Former President Fidel V. Ramos is the Philippine representative to the EPG.

The EPG will meet in Brunei later this month and will hold another one in Cebu to come up with the final draft just before the opening of the summit.

Ramos dubbed the proposed Charter as "bold and visionary", and which will be submitted during the summit for approval by the 10 Asean leaders.

Aside from the signing of the Charter, the Asean Plus-8 will also discuss trade, security, and energy matters, among others.

The Asean region, which has a population of 567 million people is a huge market with total gross domestic product amounting to US$876 billion.

In a separate press release still from PIA7, the 12th Asean summit national organizing committee said the main venue for the meetings of the Asean leaders and their dialogue partners will be held at the Shangri-La Mactan Island Resort on December 11 and 12 while the events on the last day of the summit, December 13, including the East Asia Summit will be held at the CICC in Mandaue City.

In addition, the signing ceremony for the "summit outcome documents" will also be held at CICC on December 13.

Also, the international media center will be housed at CICC.

ACCIDENT A welder of WT Construction Inc. working at CICC landed at the Mandaue City District Hospital after he fell from the scaffolding at the plenary hall at around 11 a.m. yesterday. The welder identified as Ronnie Oaminal, 26, married, a resident of barangay Mactan, Lapu-Lapu City has been working as part of the crew for the CICC project for a month now. Oaminal, in an interview over GMA7's Balitang Bisdak, clarified he was not zapped as one of his co-workers reportedly told the reporters, but said he slipped then fell off head first on the floor. Jane Rosalejos, nurse on duty of the said hospital, said the patient was attended by bone specialists when rushed to the hospital. She added that Oaminal is out of danger and needed a few stiches to close a wound on his forehead. He also fractured a bone in his right arm.

The minor accident did not however hamper the work at the CICC, which is now mainly on finishing touches.

The contractor is extending assistance to the victim and Oaminal is also going to get some support from Capitol.

Last October 11, 33-yea- old Hermogenes Adlawan died after he was electrocuted while working near the rooftop of the CICC. - with Norvie S. Misa, Jasmin R. Uy and Romeo Limpangog of Banat News